“I want to “fess up” about something, dear Facebook Friends. For reasons that are entirely personal I decided to do something about my appearance.

“I am now 65 and a few years ago began noticing that my face and neck were sagging. Over the past 18 months or so I made some nutritional changes that resulted in my losing about 25 pounds.

“The weight loss made the sagging in my face and neck even worse so I decided to have a lower face lift. I did not have any work done on my eyes, but the normal swelling that follows a lower face lift did make the area around my eyes puffy, and the swelling is taking longer than anticipated to abate.

“I could have waited a few more weeks for the swelling to fully resolve but I really wanted to return to the job I love.

“It is possible that the swelling will be around for a few more weeks and I am hoping that our viewers will indulge me during this period.

“Years ago, Marvin Zindler told me that I would one day decide to have plastic surgery, and although I silently disagreed with him at the time, it turns out he was right.

“For my part, I believe it was the right decision, and I truly hope that you will agree with me.”

Balleza sent a similar message earlier in the day to Houston media blogger Mike McGuff. McGuff said the message was in reply to his question to Balleza about whether the anchor had undergone a facelift.